The Promise We Made to Americans with Disabilities Is Under Attack

These activities are neither optional nor negotiable—they’re the foundation of the inclusion that this country promised through the ADA.

The notion that families should provide care without additional support is unrealistic and shortsighted, especially for families of people with highly complex medical or behavioral needs. Direct support professionals are trained to implement individualized care plans with a person-centered approach, respond to behavioral crises, administer medications, and more. 

Moreover, this thinking also ignores reality. For instance, many disabled adults’ parents are elderly or deceased. Many of their spouses work full time, sometimes in multiple jobs to meet their families’ financial needs. Many of their siblings are in the same boat but may live hundreds of miles away. Some have no family to fall back on at all. 

Suggesting that people don’t have the right to community-based support while insisting families provide needed care for free risks undoing more than a quarter-century of civil rights progress made possible by Olmstead. Furthermore, dismantling the spectrum of community-based services is expected to have negative down-the-line ramifications. We anticipate that more families will languish on states’ waiting lists for longer, more providers will reduce services or go out of business altogether, more professionals will leave the workforce to fill caregiving gaps, and more people with disabilities will be left with no other choice but expensive, isolating institutions.